Style and usage labels used in the dictionary -...

Style and usage labels used in the dictionary

ABBREVIATION a shortened form of a wordAPPROVING praising someone or somethingAUSTRALIAN ENGLISH

CANADIAN ENGLISH

CHILD’S WORD/EXPRESSION used by childrenDATED used in the recent past and often still used by older peopleDISAPPROVING used to express dislike or disagreement with someone or somethingEAST AFRICAN ENGLISH

FEMALE

FIGURATIVE used to express not the basic meaning of a word, but animaginative one

FORMAL used in serious or official language or when trying to impress otherpeople

HUMOROUS used when you are trying to be funnyINFORMAL used in ordinary speech (and writing) and not suitable for formal

situationsIRISH ENGLISH

LEGAL specialized language used in legal documents and in law courtsLITERARY formal and descriptive language used in literatureMALE

NORTHERN ENGLISH used in the North of EnglandNOT STANDARD commonly used but not following the rules of grammarOFFENSIVE very rude and likely to offend peopleOLD-FASHIONED not used in modern English – you might find these words in books,

used by older people, or used in order to be funnyOLD USE used a long time ago in other centuriesPOLITE WORD/EXPRESSION a polite way of referring to something that has other ruder namesSAYING a common phrase or sentence that gives advice, an opinion, etc. SCOTTISH ENGLISH

SLANG extremely informal language, used mainly by a particular group,especially young people

SPECIALIZED used only by people in a particular subject such as doctors orscientists

TRADEMARK the official name of a productUK British EnglishUS American EnglishWRITTEN ABBREVIATION a shortened form of a word used in writing

Essential: the most common and useful words in EnglishImprover: the next level of words to learn to improve your EnglishAdvanced: words to make your English really fluent and natural

www.cambridge.org© Cambridge University Press

Cambridge University Press978-0-521-71266-8 - Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, Third EditionCambridge DictionariesFrontmatterMore information

http://www.cambridge.org/0521712661

http://www.cambridge.org


CambridgeAdvancedLearner’s DictionaryTHIRD EDITION






CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore,

São Paulo, Delhi

Cambridge University Press

The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK

www.cambridge.org

Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521858045

© Cambridge University Press 2008

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception

and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,

no reproduction of any part may take place without the written

permission of Cambridge University Press.

Defined words which we have reason to believe constitute

trademarks have been labelled as such. However, neither the

presence nor absence of such labels should be regarded as affecting

the legal status of any trademarks.

First published 1995 as Cambridge International Dictionary of English

This edition first published 2008 as

Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

Printed in Italy by LegoPrint S.p.A.

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data applied for.

ISBN-13 978-0521-858045 hardback

ISBN-13 978-0521-674683 paperback

ISBN-13 978-0521-885416 hardback with CD-ROM

ISBN-13 978-0521-712668 paperback with CD-ROM






[V]

Contents

Grammar codes and abbreviations inside front cover

Introduction viii

How to use the dictionary x

Numbers that are used as words xiv

The dictionary 1-1699

Colour pictures P1 – P25

Maps P26 – P32

Extra help pages

Contents EH1

‘Let’s Talk’: conversation EH2

Common mistakes EH13

New words and phrases EH18

Letter writing EH24

Writing essays EH26

Geographical names EH30

Popular first names EH36

Prefixes and suffixes EH37

Irregular verbs EH39

Regular verb tenses EH42

Symbols EH44

Units of measurement EH46

Word families EH47

Idiom finder EH59

How we show pronunciation EH99

in the dictionary

Pronunciation symbols EH100

contents






Editorial Team

Senior Commissioning EditorElizabeth Walter

Commissioning EditorKate Woodford

EditorMelissa Good

CD-ROM Project ManagerDiane Cranz

Systems ManagerDominic Glennon

Project DeveloperDorota Bednarczyk-Krajewska

Online Dictionary ManagerAndrew Harley

Common Mistakes NotesDiane Nicholls

Editorial ContributorsPat Bulhosen

Lucy Hollingworth

Ginny Klein

Kerry Maxwell

Mairi McDonald

Julie Moore

Stella O’Shea

Glennis Pye

Frequency Banding AdvisersFelicity O’Dell

Rob Waring

Editorial AssistanceTracy Jakes

Design and ProductionSam Dumiak

Clive Rumble

DesignerDale Tomlinson

IllustrationsOxford Designers and Illustrators

Corinne Burrows

Ray Burrows

David Shenton

PhotographyTrevor Clifford

TypesettingData Standards Limited

Boag Associates

Cambridge International Corpus

Corpus Manager Ann Fiddes

Systems Developer Robert Fairchild

Editorial Assistants Charlotte Broom

Julie Sontag

Spoken Corpus Transcribers Machele Washok

Renee Martinez

Cambridge Learner Corpus Error Coding Project Manager Diane Nicholls

Learner Corpus Error Coders David Barnett

Pat Bulhosen

Gloria George

Mark Martin

Learner Corpus Transcribers Sue Forrest

Sue Barnard

Madeline Fairchild

Karen Chitty

Clare Maddox

Gayle Fairchild

Marcia Stevens

Additional Editorial Team from previous editions

Elaine Allen

Jane Bottomley

Deborah Friedland

Patrick Gillard

Guy Jackson

Jill Leatherbarrow

Clea McEnery

Duncan O’Connor

Penny Stock

Daryl Tayar

editorial team






[VIII]

Introduction

Welcome to this new edition of the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Here is some

information about its most important features.

New WordsNew words are coming into English all the

time, and we are constantly working to make

sure that our databases are up-to-date. In

the three years since the last edition, we

have added several hundred new words.

Computers and technology are always a rich

source (e.g. ego-surfing, vodcast), but many

other areas are represented. In particular,

concerns about climate change have been

reflected in a wealth of new vocabulary (e.g.

food miles, season creep). Because students

and teachers have told us that they like to

stay abreast of new words, we have made a

selection of the most interesting ones. You can

find them on pages EH18 - EH23 at the end

of the book.

Cambridge International CorpusOne of the most important tools we have for

tracking both British and American English

words is the Cambridge International Corpus,

a collection of over a billion words of written

and spoken (transcribed) language from a

huge variety of sources. The corpus is the

evidence that underpins everything we say

about words in our dictionaries.

Avoiding common mistakesWe also have an invaluable tool in the shape

of the Cambridge Learner Corpus, which

contains over 25 million words of English

written by learners. The CLC has been

developed in partnership with Cambridge

ESOL, whose exams are taken by students all

over the world. More than 10 million words

of the CLC have been coded according to the

mistakes learners make. For this edition, we

have looked at the most common mistakes

made by advanced learners, and have added

nearly 500 new or revised ‘Common Mistake’

notes to help avoid them. Many of these

mistakes will be well-known to teachers.

Others may seem a little strange, but are

frequent in our corpus. Some teachers’ hearts

may sink to think that advanced learners are

still making mistakes which may seem basic,

but the evidence of the Cambridge Learner Corpus means that our notes are based on real

data, not on conjecture or wishful thinking!

Frequency informationThe frequency information in this dictionary

is special because it shows the relative

importance not only of words, but also of

their meanings, and of individual phrases. To

create this system, researchers used data from

the Cambridge International Corpus. They

extracted all the high-frequency words and

then coded examples of them to work out the

frequency of their different meanings.

The frequency information is not just a

number-crunching exercise though. On the

overwhelming recommendation of teachers

and academic advisers, the frequency results

were adapted to the needs of learners of

English. So, for instance, basic grammar

vocabulary which is rare in everyday English

is included because it is vital for students.

The resulting system gives students a clear

guide to the most important words and

meanings to learn:

(Essential) are words

that everyone needs to know in order to

communicate effectively. They are either

extremely common (usually over 400

occurrences per 10 million corpus words),

or they express core concepts (e.g. asleep).

(Improver) are also

common in native speaker English (typically

between 200–400 occurrences per 10

million corpus words). Like Essential, this

band can include less common words

which express useful concepts.

(Advanced) typically

occur between 100-200 times per 10

million corpus words, which is still highly

significant. Advanced students should aim

to be confident with these to make their

English more fluent and natural.

Thesaurus panelsWhen we compare data from the Cambridge International Corpus and the Cambridge Learner Corpus, we can see that learners use

introduction






[IX]

certain words far more frequently than native

speakers. We have picked out around 200

of the most over-used words and provided

thesaurus panels to give learners a selection

of more interesting, specific and appropriate

words and phrases to use.

Spoken languageUsing spoken language in social situations

is one of the hardest areas for learners of

English. What do native speakers really say

when they want to turn down an offer politely,

or terminate a conversation? The brand new

‘Let’s Talk’ section on pages EH2–EH12 gives

hundreds of common and natural-sounding

phrases to use in a wide range

of situations.

GuidewordsEven for advanced learners, wading through

several senses of a word to find the right one

can be a chore. In many of our entries you will

see signposts – we call them ‘guidewords’ –

to help you find the meaning you want more

easily.

PicturesAs part of our work, we are constantly talking

to students and teachers in many different

countries to see what they want from a

dictionary, and how we can improve what we

are offering. One result of this feedback is that

this edition has a new, clearer layout and also

hundreds of new illustrations concentrating

on small items that are more easily understood

in pictures than in words.

The CD-ROMThis dictionary is also available in

CD-ROM format. If you have the CD, you

can search for words more easily, hear spoken

pronunciations, see extra example sentences,

access more comprehensive collocation

information, practise your English with

interactive exercises, and use our unique

SMARTthesaurus to turn the dictionary

into a thesaurus at the click of a button.

Cambridge Dictionaries Online ExtraThe dictionary is also available online.

The definitions can be looked at free on

our website, or to enjoy the features of

the CD-ROM, why not subscribe to

Cambridge Dictionaries Online Extraat www.dictionary.cambridge.org?

We hope you will enjoy using this new

edition of the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Do get in touch with us at

www.cambridge.org to let us know what

you think of it, or to make any suggestions for

future editions.

Elizabeth Walter

April 2008

introduction






[X]

How to use the dictionary

1 Finding a word or phrase

[X]

Some words include ‘the’ before the

headword, to show that they are always

used in this form. They are found in the

alphabetical order of the second word.

Words which are in the same word familyas the headword, and which can easily be

understood by knowing the headword,

are shown at the end of entries.

Compound words (two or more words

used together as a single word) have their

own entries, in alphabetical order.

Sometimes a word in a compound has

brackets around it. This shows that the

meaning is the same if you use the word

in brackets or not.

If a word has more than one possible

spelling, this is shown at the headword.

Other alternative forms are shown in

brackets.

Words at the beginning of entries are

called ‘headwords’. Usually they are

black, but the most important words are

blue (see section 6, below). Headwords are

in alphabetical order.

Phrasal verbs are shown after any ordinary

verbs, or at the end of entries where there

are no other verbs.

A headword may have more than one part

of speech.

Idioms are shown at the end of the

relevant part of speech. Idioms are usually

listed at the first important word. If you are

not sure where to find them, use the Idiom

Finder starting on page EH59.

heap /hi;p/"noun [C].A an untidy pile ormass of things: a heap ofclothes/rubbish"idioms the bottom of the heap People who are at thebottom of the heap are poor and unsuccessful and havethe lowest position in society. . collapse/fall in a heapto fall downheavily and lie on the groundwithoutmov-ing: The woman staggered and collapsed in a heap. . a(whole) heap of sth informal a lot of something: I’ve gota whole heap of work to do."verb [T + adv/prep] to put things into a large untidypile: He heaped more food onto his plate."phrasal verb heap sth on sb to give someone a lot ofpraise/criticism, etc: He deals well with all the criticismheaped on him.






[XI] how to use the dictionary

Numbers show the different meanings

of a headword.

Labels in square brackets give you

grammar information. These labels are

explained inside the front cover of the

dictionary.

When grammar information is shown

before numbered meanings, it is true for all

the meanings of the word.

Common grammar patterns are given

next to examples that show their use.

When grammar information is shown

after a sense number, it is only true for

that sense.

Where headwords have many meanings,

or very different meanings, GUIDEWORDS

help you fi nd the meaning you need.

There can be more than one meaning

belonging to a guideword. Entries in this

dictionary are ordered by the frequency of

the fi rst meaning in each guideword group.

If a meaning of a word is always used in a

particular phrase, but it is not an idiom,

that phrase is shown at the beginning of

the meaning.

Defi nitions are written using words that

learners of English are likely to know. If we

have to use a word that is not on the list, it

is in SMALL CAPITALS.

Where it is helpful, a short explanation is

added after these words.

2 Finding and understanding the right meaning

3 Using words and phrases correctly

how to use the dictionary

Plural forms, verb forms, comparatives and

superlatives are shown if they are irregular.

If you have the CD of this dictionary, you

can see all the infl ections of every verb.

highly /"haI.li/ adverb above averagek 1.E very, to alarge degree, or at a high level: a highly paid job * ahighly profitable line of products * For our country toremain competitive, we need a highly-skilled, highly-edu-cated workforce. 2 think/speak highly of sb to admire/say admiring things about someone: He’s very highlythought of within the company. importantk 3 in animportant or influential (= having a lot of influence)position: According to one highly-placed source, thePrime Minister had threatened to resign over this issue.






[XII]how to use the dictionary

Word partners for heat

feel / generate / give out / withstand heat . great /intense / searing heat . a high / low heat

‘Common mistake’ boxes show you

mistakes which learners of English often

make, and help you avoid them. These

notes are based on the Cambridge Learner Corpus.

Thousands of example sentences adapted

from the Cambridge International Corpusshow you how to use words naturally.

Bold words in examples are ‘word

partners’, also known as collocations.

These are words that are used very often

with words you are looking up. If you learn

these word partners, your English will

sound more natural.

Many common words have ‘Word partner’ boxes, which show the most useful partners

for that word.

4 Other useful information

Labels in SMALL SLOPING CAPITALS tell you

about how a word is used, for example if it

is informal or humorous. All these labels

are explained inside the front cover of the

dictionary.

If a word or meaning of a word is used only

in British English or only in American

English, this is shown with the labels UKor US.

If a word has a different spelling

in American and British English,

this is shown.

If the word you have looked up is used

only in British English, and a different

word is used in American English, this is

shown.

heavily /"hev.I.li/"adverb to a great degreek 1.I to a great degree:The terrorists are heavily armed. * The compound isheavily guarded. * She’s heavily involved in the project.weighing a lotk 2 in a way which needs a lot of efforttomove or lift: The news she had receivedweighed heav-ily on her (= worried her). solidk 3 in a strong, thick orsolid way:He’s a heavily built (= large and strong)man."idiom be heavily into sth informal to be very interestedin and involved with something:When I was younger Iwas heavily into politics.

Common mistake: home

Warning: to talk about movement towards or awayfrom someone’s own home, you do not need apreposition.Don’t say ‘go/come/arrive/leave to/at home’, say go/come/arrive/leave home:When I arrived to home, I realised my bag was missing.When I arrived home, I realised my bag was missing.To talk about someone moving towards or away from ahome that is not their own, it is usual to use apreposition:You are welcome to come to my home.






[XIII] how to use the dictionary

hall /hO;l/ /hA;l/ noun [C] buildingk 1.E a building orlarge room used for events involving a lot of people: theRoyal Albert Hall * a concert hall * the school sportshall * I’m playing in a concert at the village/church hall.entrancek 2.I (also hallway) the room just insidethemain entrance of a house, apartment or other build-ingwhich leads to other rooms and usually to the stairs:I’ve left my bags in the hall.

‘Other ways of saying…’ boxes give more

interesting words to use for very common

words.

Cross references help you learn more

vocabulary connected with a word.

If you have the CD of this dictionary, you can use the SMART thesaurus to look up synonyms and related words for every meaning of every word

in this dictionary.

If you have the CD of this dictionary, you can find extra example sentences for

these frequently used words.

5 Pronunciation

6 Frequency

British and American pronunciations

of a word are shown after the headword.

These are written using the International

Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). See inside the

back cover of the dictionary for full

information about the phonetic symbols.

Many words in this dictionary appear in

blue and have the labels, E, I or A. These

are the most important and useful words to

learn. For more information on these

labels, see the Introduction.

At entries for compounds, stress marks show you which part or parts you should

stress when you say it. The full

pronunciation for each word in the

compound is shown at the entry for

that word.

Other ways of saying hit

Whack means the same as ‘hit’ but is slightly moreinformal:She whacked him in the mouth.Bash is an informal word that means to hit someone orsomething hard:The ball bashed him in the face.Strike can be usedwhen someone hits a person or thinghard:She had been struck on the head with a baseball bat.If someone hits someone or something repeatedly, youcould use the word beat:He was cruel to his dog and beat it with a stick.






[XIV]

Numbers that are used as words

[XIV]

You will sometimes find these numbers used like ordinary words in English, especially in

newspapers or on the Internet. This page tells you what they mean and how they are

pronounced.

0800 number /%@U.eIt"hVn.dr@d%nVm.b@r/ noun [C] in theUK, a free telephone number that begins with 0800,provided by companies or other organizations offeringadvice or information

0898 number /%@U.eIt"naIn.eIt%nVm.b@r/ noun [C] in theUK, an expensive telephone number that begins with0898 that is provided by companies offering servicessuch as chatlines

101 /%wVn.@U"wVn/ adjective mainly US humorous relatingto themost basic knowledge about a subject:You shouldknow how to boil an egg -- that’s cooking 101. * Helpingpeople get to the polls is a basic lesson of politics 101.

12A /%twelv"eI/ in the UK, a symbol thatmarks a film thatcannot be legally watched alone by children who areunder twelve years old

15 /%fIf"ti;n/ in the UK, a symbol used to mark a film thatcannot be legally watched by children who are underfifteen years old

18 /%eI"ti;n/ in the UK, a symbol used to mark a film thatcannot be legally watched by children who are undereighteen years old

180 /%wVn"eI.8i/ noun [C usually singular] us informal asudden change from one particular opinion, decisionor plan to the opposite one: Jack’s done a 180 and agreedto come on the trip.

2:1 /%tu;"wVn/ noun [C] (also upper second) a degree qua-lification from a British university that is below a firstand above a 2:2

2:2 /%tu;"tu;/ noun [C] (also lower second) a degree quali-fication from a British university that is below a 2:1 andabove a third

20/20 vision /%twen.ti%twen.ti"vIZ.@n/ noun [S] the abilityto see perfectly, without needing to wear glasses orcontact lenses: You’re so lucky to have 20/20 vision,Dom.

.22 /%pOInt.tu;"tu;/ noun [C] a type of gun that fires smallbullets, used especially for hunting small animals

24/7 /%twen.ti.fO;"sev.@n/ /-8i.fO;r-/ adverb, adjectiveinformal twenty four hours a day, seven days a week;all the time:We’re open for business 24/7. *We offer 24/7 internet access.

24-hour clock /twen.ti%fO;.raU@"klQk/ noun [S] the sys-tem of using 24 numbers instead of 12 to refer to thehours in the day

3-D /%Tri;"di;/ in a 3-D film or picture, the objects lookreal and solid instead of looking like a normal flat pic-ture: a 3-D effect * These computer games rely on 3-Dgraphics. * The picture looks great because it’s in 3-D.

3G /%Tri;"dZi;/ adjective relating to technology that is newand improved, especially mobile phones on which youcan use the Internet, watch television, etc.. 3G is shortfor ‘third generation’: They invested heavily in 3Gmobilephone networks.

3Ws /Tri;"dVb.l0 .ju;z/ noun something you can say torepresent ‘www’ at the beginning of a website address:The dictionary website is 3Ws dot dictionary dot cam-bridge dot org.

.45 /%fO;.ti"faIv/ /%fO;r.8i-/ noun [C] a type of large pistol(= small gun)

4WD /%fO;.wI:l"draIv/ noun [C or U] written abbreviationfor four-wheel drive: a vehicle that has power sup-plied by the engine to all four wheels so that it cantravel easily over difficult ground

4x4 /%fO;.baI"fO;r/ /%fO;r.baI"fO;r/ noun [C or U] abbrevia-tion for four-wheel drive: a vehicle that has powersupplied by the engine to all four wheels so that it cantravel easily over difficult ground

$64,000 question /%sIk.sti.fO;r%TaU.z@nd"dA;.lkwes.tS@n/ noun [C usually singular] (also million dollarquestion) an important or difficult question, onwhich alot depends: The $64, 000 dollar question is, can werepeat last year’s success?

7/7 /"sev@n"sev@n/ used to refer to July 7, 2005, when foursuicide bombers killed themselves and 52 other peo-ple in attacks on London’s public transport system

800 number /%eIt"hVn.dr@d%nVm.b@r/ /-b / noun [C] inthe US, a free telephone number that begins with 800,provided by companies or other organizations offeringadvice or information

900 number /%naIn"hVn.dr@d%nVm.b@r/ /-b / noun [C]in the US, an expensive telephone number that beginswith 900, provided by companies offering services suchas chatlines

911 /%naIn.wVn"wVn/ the telephone number used in theUS to call the emergency services

9/11 /%naIn.I"lev.@n/ September the eleventh, written inUS style: the date of the attacks on the World TradeCenter and the Pentagon in the US in 2001: Since 9/11there has been more co-operation between Russia andAmerica.

999 /%naIn.naIn"naIn/ the telephone number used inBritain to call the emergency services: a hoax 999 call*There’s been an accident - dial 999 and ask for an ambu-lance.






Style and usage labels used in the dictionary -...

Documents

Transcript of Style and usage labels used in the dictionary -...